Monday

Rice paddy behind the hotel in Ichinoseki City


Iwate prefecture is the dark green area on the main island of Japan.

Today we spent the morning at Iwate University, talking with teachers and students at the college. They were mostly very shy but friendly. They certainly spoke English better than we spoke Japanese.

In the afternoon we traveled north to Ichinoseki City, the site of the recent earthquake, where we met with the mayor and the superintendent of schools. Our hotel is right off the highway, a businessmen's hotel that looks very new. The view outside my window is of a rice paddy. It comes right up to the parking lot of the hotel and an apartment building.